WOOD INDUSTRi'. 115 



i;oods of Other materials often use circular and baud saws, hand-fed planing machines 

 such as the universal wood worker and others for making packing cases, sawing-- 

 wood and other purposes. 



lu Flulaiid the wood manufacture is developed to a considerable degree and 

 its proportions are steadily increasing. Thus, in 1879 there were 244 saw mills. 

 • i3 steam and 181 water power, employing 6,128 men, sawing 3,892,676 logs and pro- 

 •lacing 439,830 cubic metres of planks, 348.065 cubic metres of barge sheathing and 

 17,015 cubic metres of other goods. In 1888 the number of saw mills increased to 

 .')14 of which 117 were driven by steam and 197 by water power and employing 

 7.045 men, cutting 8,186,157 logs and producing 597,173 cubic metres of planks, 

 791,885 cubic metres of barge sheathing and 89,782 cubic metres of other goods. 

 The total production of the wood-working trade in Finland amounts to 12 million 

 paper roubles. 



The village wood trade is highly developed, and at present of great impor- 

 tance as it enables a considerable proportion of the population of the Empire to 

 tarn a livelihood without removing them from the soil or their homes. All the 

 investigations, made with the aim of studying village trades in Eussia, show that 

 wood is the most suitable material for the village craftsmen; as there is hardly a 

 government in Eussia, however deficient in wood, where there are no village arti- 

 sans engaged in making the most common household articles from wood. 



On account of the great importance of the village trade the Government, 

 scientific societies, technologists and other interested parties make every effort to im- 

 prove the village handicrafts b}' organizing exhibitions, establishing suitable schools 

 and removing all conditions unfavourable to its development, especially as the goods 

 are not only remarkable for their cheapness and the national character of their 

 design, but also eminently adapted to the particular requirements of the population. 

 In consequence of the rise in the prices of wood in many places the Department of 

 Woods and Forests issued a circular dated September 23, 1889, to all the adminis- 

 trations of Crown property permitting the sale of a part of the wood without bid- 

 ding, not only to whole societies of peasants but to the separate groups of village 

 craftsmen in order to enable them to acquire wood on easy terms, therely supporting 

 the wood-working trade in those places where there are not many forests belonging 

 to private persons. 



Almost the whole of Eussia is dotted with numerous small wood-working 

 establishments which generally make a specialty of one kind of work, which is often 

 of an original character. In most cases the inhabitants of one village keep to the 

 same style whilst those of another village manufacture a different article so that 

 the class of work is rarely mixed in the same village. On the other hand th>^ 

 craftsmen of adjacent villages often subdivide the labour required in one and the 

 same branch of the trade. Thus, in some hamlets of the Semenovsk district of the 

 government of Nizhni-Novgorod the peasants carve out rough wooden spoons, whilst 

 in another they are turned, and finally painted in a third, but not a single viUagf. 

 or family turns out a finished spoon. 



Once introduced into a given locality the wood-working industry generally 

 cUngs to it, and if the wood in the neighbourhood becomes exhausted the artisans 

 import it, even from afar. For purchasing their materials they generally unite into 



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